Chambers Top Departments

Rankings Roundup

Vault #30
AMLaw #14

What do these ratings mean?

from Brian Dalton, Breaking Media Director of Research

The ATL School and Firm Insiders Survey asks self-identified current students,
alumni, and practicing lawyers to rate major aspects of life at their law school (academics, social
life, clinical training, career services, financial aid advising) and/or law firm (compensation,
hours, morale, culture, training). We then translate these ratings into letter grades, where the
mean score for each particular ratings category is the equivalent of a “B.”

We require a minimum threshold of responses for each institution before we publish any survey-based
ratings content. Using a standard formula for statistical validity, we adhere to a threshold that
gives us an 85% confidence level and a 10% margin of error. The precise threshold number will of
course vary depending on the size of the individual institution. For example, for a law firm of
1,000 attorneys, we would require 50 responses in order to publish ratings for the firm.

Top Practice by Headcount and Top Schools data is provided by
Leopard Solutions. Leopard Solutions
is a leading provider of attorney data to legal recruiters, law firms and law schools. We track
attorneys in over 1500 law firms around the country and document their practice area, specialties,
honors, languages advanced degrees and more. We provide an overview of each law firm as well as
detailed information on individual attorneys. The data can be used to track trends, movements,
growth and more.

Leverage is the number of attorneys minus equity partners, divided by equity partners.

Salaries & Compensation

Advances, Bonuses, Benefits & Stipends for First-Years

Insider Reviews

Mayer Brown quietly paid substantially above-market bonuses to associates in February. Cases are not over-leveraged so junior and mid-level associates have a chance to do substantive work, provided they earn the trust of their superiors.

Midlevel Associate

In the NY office, if you get an offer, they will provide their biggest cheerleaders to encourage you to accept, who will generally lie about or misrepresent that office.

* Guess the law firm whose D.C. managing partner just said, “You would be hard-pressed to find another law firm of almost 200 lawyers that gets less name recognition than we do.” [National Law Journal]

* Everything is bigger in Texas — including the number of lawyers (300!) behind the effort to overturn the one-year suspension of prominent capital defense lawyer David Dow. [Slate]

* Did two little kids get slapped with a lifetime gag order barring them from talking about fracking. But how will they explain their third eye? [The Guardian]

* Private equity firm TPG is suing its former PR man — former Bush spokesperson Adam Levine — for allegedly stealing confidential documents and threatening to leak them to the press. They probably showed where the Iraq WMDs were. [O’Dwyer’s]

* So maybe the blizzard of 2015 fizzled for New Yorkers. But winter’s not over yet — how do you interview in a snowstorm? [Corporette]

* Senate Republicans are contemplating abolishing filibusters for SCOTUS nominees. This could go one of two ways: it could work out nicely for them, or explode in their faces. It’s like a choose your own adventure game. [POLITICO]

* When it comes to the upcoming gay marriage cases before SCOTUS, “[e]very lawyer involved will want to argue.” Remember, when you’re given the chance to make history, you better hope that you’re on the right side of it. [National Law Journal]

* “[I]f there is one decision I would overrule, it is Citizens United.” Even RBG thinks this campaign finance decision is one of the Supreme Court’s “darkest hour[s].” [Salon]

* SCOTUS refused to stay Charles Warner’s execution, but it agreed to grant cert on his lethal injection case days after his death. Better late than never? [New York Times]

* The NFL has drafted Ted Wells of Paul Weiss to blow up the absurd controversy that is “Deflategate.” Come on, who cares if the Patriots cheated again? [WSJ Law Blog]

* Do you know any chronic Biglaw firm-hoppers? How many firms are too many to lateral to? Three? Five? Seven? Jesus Christ, for this guy, try 10 firms. [Am Law Daily]

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